Hope's and Howard's Sailing Adventures

The last day and a half of the passage in the mostly Easterly Tradewinds went by fast, though we did alter course once or twice to avoid rain squalls, just in case they were the ones that Chris Parker described as isolated squalls with wind up to 30 knots.  We didn’t see anything above 20 knots.  However, based on Chris’s forecast we expected the wind to be a bit north.. Read More

The past couple of days have seen some great sailing but with a fair bit of motoring as well. The wind clocked steadily from Southwest to West when it was in the mid to upper teens to Northwest to North when it dropped to under 10 knots. Since our heading was Southsoutheast, boat speed dropped too much at that point so we resorted to the “iron genny” again. We felt.. Read More

Michael’s pasta dish on Tuesday was yummy, I’m looking forward to his next culinary creation…. Yesterday was a catch-up day; the wind died, as predicted and seas flattened out but it remained overcast so the temperature remained relatively cool (still wearing jeans during night watches). Although we really haven’t been using a whole lot of water, we tried out the water-maker for a couple of hours which successfully replenished about.. Read More

The whisker pole proved its value when we passed at least 4 boats while using it for about 9 hours on Sunday while wing-on-wing on a downwind run with winds of 10-18 knots. It actually helped to stabilize the boat from the wave action. Who said this isn’t a race? However, as the wind picked up at dusk, we wisely rolled in the genoa and some of the mainsail so.. Read More

Following Chris Parker’s webinar on Friday afternoon when he’d advised boats departing Hampton that the optimum window for crossing the Gulf Stream would be after sunset Saturday through midday on Sunday, we decided to leave with a favorable tide around 3am on Saturday. The wind was on the nose initially so we waited to set the sails until after we had passed the Chesapeake bridge-tunnel, had exited the bay and.. Read More

The week of seminars with a few parties thrown in went by fast, especially as Howard was still working to complete a few tasks on the boat and I helped out every day at the Salty Dawg ‘General Information’ table when I wasn’t helping him.  Unfortunately our two crew were not able to join us in Hampton until the last couple of days so they missed the Air Sea Rescue.. Read More

While most of our efforts since arriving in Hampton have been prepping the boat for the trip south, Howard did take time yesterday and the day before to help a friend take his catamaran, a Lagoon 42, over to Cape Charles where he was to haul it for the insurance surveyor to check the integrity of the hull following a lightening strike earlier this summer.  Just as well Paul has.. Read More

Under Pepper’s careful management, all the tasks that we needed help with had been satisfactorily completed so it was time for us to leave the dock in front of his house and head south to Hampton.  There, we plan to complete our final preparations for our passage to the Virgin Islands with the Salty Dawgs.  We departed Worton Creek on Friday morning and headed to Baltimore where we had hoped.. Read More

The summer has flown by.  We had a week or two in August when we tried to chip away at our ‘To Do’ list but found it rather hard because it was so hot so progress was slow.  We hauled the boat shortly before departing for Oregon where we spent time with Scott and his fiancé, Kendal and her parents.  Despite the fact that Scott was studying for board exams.. Read More